Ohio not part of nonbinding 'fracking' pact

Sunday

Mar 31, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 31, 2013 at 3:02 PM

Environmental groups and drilling companies in Ohio seldom agree on anything involving " fracking." But when the Center for Sustainable Shale Development announced an agreement on a set of environmental standards for shale drilling in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the two groups united behind a single question: Who are these guys?

But when the Center for Sustainable Shale Development announced an agreement on a set of environmental standards for shale drilling in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the two groups united behind a single question: Who are these guys?

The Pittsburgh-based center is a coalition of environmental groups, drilling companies and foundations — none of which is from Ohio. It made headlines on March 21 with a list of 15 standards it said would allow hydraulic-fracturing drilling while safeguarding people and the environment in both states.

Any oil and gas company that proves it meets the standards would be certified, something the center says would help reassure neighbors that companies’ drilling operations are safe. The certification would not replace government-set limits or standards that oil and gas companies must obey but instead work like a “seal of approval.”

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which regulates drilling, said the center did not contact or consult anyone in the department.

Thousands of wells have been drilled into the Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania, and more than 280 wells have been drilled in the Utica shale in Ohio.

“We believe these standards are at least as good as any state regulation anywhere,” said Armond Cohen, the director of the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force, one of the center’s founding partners. Other partners include the Environmental Defense Fund, Chevron, CONSOL Energy and the William Penn Foundation.

Keith Dimoff, the director of the Ohio Environmental Council, an advocacy group, said the standards don’t address serious issues that are particular to Ohio, including disposal wells that drilling companies use to inject fracking wastes.“They don’t address a wide range of risks,” Dimoff said.

Tom Stewart, the vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, agrees.“I think the public will only have faith and trust if a state agency is setting standards,” Stewart said.

After that, however, the two groups disagree on how tough those standards should be.

Environmentalists say fracking, which pumps millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to shatter shale and free oil and gas, is a pollution threat. Industry officials say the process is safe and that being able to extract the gas and oil is a boon to the economy.

The 15 standards that the Center for Sustainable Shale Development developed require such things as recycling fracking waste and drilling fluids, and they ban pits that are used to store those wastes temporarily.

Drillers also would have to limit air pollution from diesel engines and keep natural gas from polluting the air during fracking operations.

Teresa Mills, an Ohio organizer for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, took issue with one standard that would allow treated wastewater from fracking to be dumped into streams starting in September 2014.

One Ohio company — Patriot Water Treatment — treats fracking waste and dumps it into the Mahoning River. A measure in the state’s proposed two-year budget bill would ban river dumping without state approval. Ohio’s budget bill also contains specific limits on radium and other naturally occurring radioactive materials found in fracking waste that can be safely dumped into landfills. The center’s standards don’t mention radiation.

Mills called the center’s standards “feeble” and said they could undermine efforts to get Ohio lawmakers to enact tougher protections.

Davitt Woodwell, a vice president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, an advocacy group and a partner in the Center for Sustainable Shale Development, said the standards won’t undermine other efforts. “This does not replace the work that the other groups are doing on regulations,” Woodwell said.

“This doesn’t mean that we’re not continuing to work on regulatory processes in Pennsylvania."